


A Working Relationship

by fangirlingtodeath513



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reality Show, Arguing, Blow Jobs, Business Dinners, Castiel and Dean Winchester are Co-Workers, Castiel/Dean Winchester Mutual Pining, Co-workers, Competition, Competition-Set Fic, Contractor Dean Winchester, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dean Winchester Wears Glasses, Designer Castiel (Supernatural), Flirting, Flirty Dean Winchester, Friends to Lovers, Gossip, Hand Jobs, Harlequin, M/M, Mathematics, Mutual Pining, Pet Names, Reality TV, Rule 12 - Never Date a Co-Worker, Sabotage, Sharing Clothes, Surprises, business meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:15:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirlingtodeath513/pseuds/fangirlingtodeath513
Summary: The homes that Castiel Novak designs for Angelic Houses are to die for. They’re pristine, perfectly designed and organized, and they’ve caused more than a few bidding wars. It’s the perfect job—he’s organized, good with math, and he’s able to pick up on design trends relatively quickly. The only thing thatisn’tperfect? His obnoxious older brother, Luke. Castiel’s been vying for a position on a flipping team for years now, but Luke has never even considered it. When a lecherous gossip reporter overhears an argument, they receive an offer they can’t refuse.They’re invited to compete on Flip Off, a competition where two people flip houses and compete for the highest profit. Castiel wants the leverage a win would bring him, but he also wants to prove himself. Enter Dean Winchester, a contractor with his own team and one that’s blissfully unconnected to Angelic Houses, allowing Castiel to prove himself without any help from the family company.The undeniable attraction between them certainly doesn’t help matters, but Castiel is resolute in his decision to make a move only after they’ve finished working together. At least, that had been his plan until Dean made him an offer he simply couldn’t refuse.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Rowena MacLeod/Sam Winchester
Comments: 53
Kudos: 307
Collections: Destiel Harlequin Challenge 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhh, it's finally here! My submission for the Destiel Harlequin Bang 2020 :D I've been sitting on this for a little while now and I'm so happy I can finally share it! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do <3
> 
> Huge shoutout to my beta, the ever-amazing [Gii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heylittleangel/pseuds/heylittleangel), for wrangling all of my grammar mishaps.
> 
> Big thank you to the mods of the challenge for being so wonderful and running such a cool and fun bang!

Castiel stabs a piece of sausage angrily. “Just because you perceive me as a child doesn’t mean I’m entirely worthless, Luke. I’ve been designing houses for this company— _our_ company—for years now.”

Luke scoffs and takes a sip of his mimosa, the bright morning sun shining off his tacky Rolex. Castiel hates how often Luke chooses to flaunt their wealth, but he supposes it’s none of his business. “All due respect, Castiel, but it’s not _our_ company. You chose to stay behind the scenes and design the houses and I took on the burden of being the face of the company.”

“Oh for—Luke, we’re equally known as the faces of the company. I’ve had hundreds of offers from competing companies and I’ve stayed because you’re my brother and I want this to work, but I want to take one house from beginning to end. Just one. If I don’t ace it, then I’ll go back to my office and keep designing houses behind the scenes.”

Luke sits back in his chair and sighs, tossing his napkin on the table. “Why do you want this so badly? I thought you were content designing houses for the company. When you were with April, you seemed to—”

“Oh, don’t bring April into this. You know anything from that time is irrelevant.”

Luke heaves another sigh. “I don’t think I can let you take on a full project in good conscience, Castiel. You’ve never been through the process.”

“So let me shadow one of our teams. I want to do this, Luke, I’ll do whatever you think I need to.”

“I’ll think about it,” Luke finally acquiesces, nodding. “It’d be on an internship basis, you wouldn’t be able to touch anything within the process, just observe.”

Castiel smiles a real smile, the first one he remembers having in a long time. “That’s all I’m asking for, Luke. Just the opportunity to learn.”

Luke hums, flashing a charming smile at the waiter as he takes the billfold and tucks his credit card into it. “Let me shuffle some things around and I’ll see who’s available for observation.”

Castiel leaves their brunch far lighter than he’d arrived, like a ton of weight has been lifted off his shoulders. He’s excited for the first time in a long time and he can’t wait to get started.

The call he’s been waiting for comes only a couple of days later. Luke’s secretary calls and asks him to come in for a meeting the following morning, at nine. Castiel puts on his best dress shirt and pressed dress pants, making sure to use the cufflinks Luke had gifted him several years ago. He actually manages to smooth his hair down for once, though it may have so much hair gel that he’s quite possibly flammable. Still, he looks professional, so he’ll take the chance of bursting into flames.

Luke’s office door is closed when Castiel arrives, which isn’t entirely out of the ordinary. Lilith, his secretary, points Cas toward the plush chairs next to her desk to wait, so he settles into one and sighs softly. There’s no telling how long he may be waiting for Luke. It could be anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. If something pressing within the company has come up, he may not even get to see Luke today.

He’s only actually kept waiting for about half an hour. One of the men on the company’s board, Bartholomew, leaves Luke’s office with a scowl on his face, and Luke doesn’t look to be in a better mood. He waves Castiel into his office, running a hand through his own hair. It’s messy and he looks disheveled. That doesn’t bode well. 

“Close the door behind you, Castiel.”

Cas clears his throat nervously, closing the door quietly behind himself. “Did something happen?”

Luke laughs humorlessly. “You could say that, yes.” He sits heavily in the chair behind his desk, putting his face in his hands for a moment before looking up at Cas. “Bela Talbot, that leech of a gossip reporter, overheard our brunch conversation. It’s tanking faith in the company, the belief that we aren’t as united a front as we present. I’ve been asked—ordered, really—to bring back confidence somehow.”

“Oh,” Castiel says eloquently, frowning. “What do you need me to do? I’ll help with anything I can.”

Luke waves a hand at him. “I know you would, but in this case, I don’t need it. I know you want to take a house from purchase all the way through selling, so now you’ll have the opportunity.” He straightens up, sliding a folder across the desk toward Castiel. “Rowena McLeod stopped by my office last night and left me this offer. I’ve already accepted, but it needs your approval as well.”

Castiel raises his eyebrows, watching Luke for a moment before he collects the folder from his desk and flips it open. There’s a stack of paperwork inside, though the front page immediately makes it clear what this offer is. Of course, he’d already had his suspicions just based on who was giving them the offer.

Rowena McLeod is the producer of _Flip Off_ , the highest-grossing HGTV show on the planet. It’s a force to be reckoned with and it’s launched the careers of more than a few contractors and house-flipping enterprises. Their company, Angelic Houses, has even hired a few people from the show. It pits two teams against each other and it takes the teams and the audience through the entire process—picking the house they’re going to flip, the process of actually designing the house and constructing the design in the real world, and getting it on the market and sold. It’s the exact process Castiel wants to be a part of, given the opportunity, so he flips through the documents in the folder. It would pit him against Luke, which was rather obvious, given the circumstances. He’d have to find his own team since it would technically be him against Angelic Houses, which is moderately worrying. The only contractors he knows are the ones that work for the company, he’s not even sure where he would begin trying to find a team he could trust enough to execute his eventual design, not to mention go against all the talented contractors employed by Angelic Houses. 

That’s a problem for another day. The rest of the information packet is pretty straight-forward. Each team would bring forward three houses along with their designs and budgets for each of them. They’d then be able to choose whichever house they wanted, given that the budget was approved by the higher-ups at the show. The show would purchase the houses for them and put in all the renovation money so neither Cas nor Angelic Houses would be liable for anything. Three impartial judges, who weren’t part of the process, would then come in to judge how everything was done, from the house that was chosen to the overall design down to how it was staged for sale. It’d undoubtedly be a grueling process, but the more Cas reads, the more he wants to participate. 

“It seems like a reasonable offer. It’d be good exposure for the company and you’d get your shot to flip a house on your own.”

Castiel hums, setting the folder on the desk in front of him. “I’m in.”

Luke raises his eyebrows. “Just like that? You don’t want to sleep on it?”

“What is there to sleep on? The company isn’t liable for anything, it’d push Bela’s article out of people’s minds, and I’ll finally get the chance to prove that I can do more than just design.” Cas frowns. “Unless you think it’s a bad idea?”

“No,” Luke chuckles, leaning back in his chair. Castiel can feel the relief emanating from his older brother. “No, I think it’s a great idea. I’ll give her a call and set everything up.” He reaches for his phone, so Cas takes the hint and collects his jacket. “This is your copy, I’ve got one. Take it home and read it over before we sign the contracts,” Luke whispers, pushing the folder closer to Castiel, who obliges, collecting the folder and waving over his shoulder before he closes the office door behind himself.

The first thing he does when he gets home is reach out to Meg, head of human resources at Angelic Houses. 

“Clarence, to what do I owe the pleasure? It’s usually your stuffy older brothers chatting me up, it must be serious if you’re calling me.”

Castiel smiles. It’s been far too long since he’s spoken to Meg. “I actually wanted to ask you a favor, but you can’t tell anyone.”

He can almost picture Meg raising her eyebrows. “My lips are sealed. Whatcha need?”

“A contractor. Actually, a team of contractors, if you know of any, but they need to be ones that don’t currently work for the company.”

Meg gasps. “Ooh, Clarence! Are you staging a coup?”

He snorts. “No, Luke is still very much in charge of the company. Rowena McLeod has given us the opportunity to do an episode of _Flip Off_ , me versus Luke. I just want to prove that I can do this without the help of the company.”

The line is silent for longer than Cas is comfortable with. “You… you do realize I am the head of the HR department, right? Me helping you would technically be the company helping you.”

Castiel sighs. “I know, but this is the least amount of help I can figure out. I don’t have time to find a contractor on my own and I know the people who apply are at least the cream of the crop. Usually.”

“Fair enough,” Meg says, the sound of her typing filling the silence of the call as she looks people up. “Alright, I emailed you a list of four people. Those are the only four that made it far enough to actually get background checks in the last couple of years, so if they don’t work, I’ve got nothing for you. Good luck, Clarence.”

Castiel thanks her and promptly loads the list, digging through everything he can find online about all four people. Two went on to work for rival companies, so those are quickly ruled out. The other two don’t seem to have much of an online presence, which is… less than encouraging. After a little more digging, he rules those out as well. 

Instead of digging himself into an anxious hole trying to find a contractor, he decides to go over the information packet from Rowena again. He tugs at the knot of his tie, loosening it and unbuttoning the top button of his shirt as he spreads the papers out across his desk. He reads through the draft contract first. There’s nothing spectacular in there, though he does note that both he and Luke would be paid for their appearances, along with their crews. The rest of the packet is ridiculously thick, but it lays out the areas they’re considering filming in, so he digs his laptop out from the mess of papers on his desk and starts to look at some of the houses for sale in the area. He wants to see what renovated houses are selling for, in addition to any houses that seem good for a flip. He finds about twenty houses that could be good candidates, so he jots their addresses down to revisit once he has a contractor and knows what area they’ll be working in.

By the time he needs to head to bed that night, he’s feeling much more confident than he’d been walking out of Luke’s office that morning.


	2. Chapter 2

They meet with Rowena a week later to iron out the final details of the episode. Michael, their eldest brother, accompanies them to act as their lawyer. He’s the head of the legal department for Angelic Houses, so he’s not exactly impartial, but Cas trusts that Michael will make sure the terms are good for both Cas and Luke. He still takes the chance to read the contract over himself before signing it. That’s the first thing he’d learned when he’d joined the family business—never sign a contract unless you’ve read every single word. 

He waves Rowena down once Michael and Luke have left. “Rowena, I have a favor to ask.”

She smirks. “Anything for my newest star. What can I do for you, dearie?”

“I need a contractor. I want someone outside the company so I can prove that I can do this on my own, without the help of Angelic Houses.”

Rowena crosses her arms over her chest. “You don’t want to take advantage of the resources at your fingertips?” She chuckles. “Admirable. Idiotic, but admirable. Follow me, dear, we’ll see who we can come up with.”

Castiel gives her a relieved smile, following her through the hallways and into her eccentric office—although, now that he looks at it, it’s not as eccentric as he’d thought. Design-wise, it’s absolutely stunning. There are potted plants in every corner, long, flowing plants hanging from the ceiling in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, and small succulents on nearly every surface. The furniture is plush and looks comfy, like something he’d put in a reading nook in one of his houses. 

“Take a seat, Castiel, give me a moment to double-check something.”

Castiel nods and settles into one of the chairs and, yup, it’s just as comfortable as he’d thought. Rowena sits gracefully in the high-backed red chair behind her desk, digging through a file for a moment before sliding a few pieces of paper across the desk.

“My brother-in-law is a contractor,” she explains, scribbling a phone number on a post-it and sticking it to the top sheet of paper. “He’s not working on a project at the moment, so he’ll probably be pleased to hear from you. Give me about an hour to warn him before you call, if you don’t mind?”

Castiel smiles gratefully. “Thank you, Rowena, I truly appreciate this.”

Rowena smirks. “Least I could do, you and your aggravating brother are going to give me a gorgeous episode.”

Cas laughs. “Aggravating?”

“You didn’t hear it from me,” she says, winking as she stands. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

* * *

He counts down the minutes until he can call Rowena’s contact—Dean Winchester, given the business card attached to the paperwork. He tries the number printed on the business card first. He doesn’t want to resort to using Dean’s personal cell unless he has to, and he figures calling with a business proposition would be better received on a business line.

At least, it would have been, had Dean answered. He thinks about leaving a message, but they’re supposed to start filming in a week so he doesn’t really have time to waste waiting for Dean to call back. Pushing down his anxiety about calling some random person’s personal cell phone, he dials the number and bites at his nail as he waits for the call to connect.

“Hello?” 

The voice is low and warm and it sends a shiver down Cas’s spine. He breathes a sigh of relief, running a hand through his hair. “Hello, is this Dean Winchester?”

“Sure is. Who’s this?”

“Castiel Novak. I work for—”

“Angelic Houses, yeah. Rowena mentioned you might be calling. What can I do for ya, Cas?”

Cas? He’s been on the phone for less than a minute and he’s already got a nickname? He… kinda likes it, actually. “I’m going to be on  _ Flip Off _ competing against my brother, Luke. I want to prove that I can do this on my own, so I’m looking for a contractor not associated with Angelic Houses. Is that something you’d be interested in?”

Dean snorts. “Beating your brother at flipping a house? You’re damn right I’d be interested in that.”

Castiel raises his eyebrows. “Just like that? Really?”

“No offense, but your brother’s kind of a dick. I’ve heard the stories. Hell, I’ve got some employees working for me that used to work for him and they  _ hated  _ him.”

He sighs. “I’m not surprised, to be honest. He can be… demonic, even at the best of times.”

Dean laughs. “When’s filming start?”

“Next Monday. As far as I understand, that’s when they’ll tell us what area we’ll be working in so we can look at properties.”

“Yeah, that’s usually how it works. Alright, so you’ll have about a week to do that, meaning you wouldn’t need my full crew for about two weeks. I’ll let them know and meet you at Rowena’s office Monday morning?”

Castiel grins. “Perfect. Thank you, Dean.”

“My pleasure, Cas. See you Monday.”

* * *

Monday morning, he arrives at  _ Flip Off _ ’s offices fifteen minutes before his meeting in dress pants and a crisp, short-sleeve button-down. It’s hot today, almost eighty, so he figures this is dressy enough for the show. If not, he’s sure they’ll give him a wardrobe or something.

Luke and his crew are already in the waiting room outside Rowena’s office when Cas gets there. Luke is so overdressed that Cas feels kinda out of place. He’s in a full suit, shiny new dress shoes, and a blood-red tie. His hair is perfectly slicked back and he looks like the picture of sophistication. Cas tugs at his shirt nervously, which is when Luke finally notices his presence. His brother gives him a once-over and smirks. “Couldn’t even bother to dress up when you’re going to be on TV, Cassie? Typical.”

“Castiel, good morning. Join me in my office?” Rowena asks as she walks by, large coffee in one hand and a clipboard in the other. Castiel glances at Luke once more before he quickly turns and follows Rowena into her office. 

“Is everything—” he abruptly stops as his eyes fall on the person waiting in the office for them. He’s  _ gorgeous _ and Cas can feel his heart jump into his throat as jade eyes meet his own. The man smirks at him and raises a hand in greeting, pushing himself to his feet. He’s around Cas’s height, maybe an inch or two taller, and his smile makes it a little hard for Cas to catch his breath. “Oh. Hello.”

The man laughs and it’s warm and deep and makes a strange kind of heat spread through the center of Cas’s chest. “Heya, Cas. I’m Dean.”

Cas lets out a quiet laugh and smiles, taking Dean’s proffered hand. “Nice to meet you, Dean. Thank you for agreeing to help me.”

Dean waves his thanks away, plopping back into his seat and grinning at Rowena. “I don’t think Rowena would’ve let me say no, truth be told, but I’m happy to have a chance to knock Luke Novak down a few pegs.”

Rowena snorts. “Knock him off the ladder, will you? Anyway, Castiel, I asked you in here to bring you through the process quickly before we begin. Luke’s been through it many a time with the company, so I figured I’d give you the same advantage. Today, we’ll tell you which area we’ll be filming in and we’ll do some filming of you trying to find properties, maybe outline some of your design ideas, but today is mostly stress-free. You and your team will have time to figure out which house you want to go for and, once you submit the house, the tentative design plan, and your budget, we’ll go ahead and submit the offer for you. We’ve only had a few episodes where one of the houses couldn’t be purchased, but make sure you have a back-up plan or two just in case.”

Castiel nods as he tries to mentally catalogue everything she’s telling him. He’s already got some properties picked out, so that shouldn’t be an issue. “I can do that.”

“Perfect.” She grins and takes a sip of her coffee before standing again. “Shall we do this, boys?”

Dean stands and offers Cas a hand, tilting his head toward the door with a smirk. “Let’s go kick your brother’s ass.”

Castiel laughs, taking Dean’s hand and allowing the contractor to pull him to his feet. “Yes, let’s.”

“Love your outfit, by the way, dear. Very down to earth, it’ll play much better to the audience than your brother’s.”

With instructions complete and the  _ Flip Off  _ crew ready to move, they all pile into a line of cars and head for the area they’ll be working in for the next couple of months. Much to Castiel’s excitement, they pull up to one of the areas he’d found a ton of potential houses in, which relieves a bit of his stress. He’s got options, at the very least. He’s looking forward to getting Dean’s opinions on some of the houses and designs he’s got in mind.

The cameras are rolling before any of them even get out of the car. Rowena stops near them and from the look on her face, Luke and his posse are already being a menace. “Your dear brother has requested that I see to his filming  _ personally _ , so Charlie will be working with you primarily.” Rowena looks around for a moment before catching someone’s eye and waving them over. A bubbly redhead comes striding over, grinning as Dean pulls her into a tight hug, one that seems just a little bit too friendly. 

“Charles,” Dean greets her. “It’s been so long.”

Charlie snorts. “Yeah, Friday night was so long ago.” She shakes her head, turning to Cas with a friendly smile. “You must be Castiel, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Charlie Bradbury, the production manager, I’ll be working with your team since our other team is being a little—”

“Pig-headed?” Rowena interrupts with a charming smile, making Dean and Charlie laugh and Castiel smile.

“Right, well anyway, I’ve got a couple things I need to go do before we get rolling, but come find me if you need me!” Charlie waves as she heads off toward the area where the crew is getting set up, leaving Cas, Rowena, and Dean alone. Rowena sighs and runs a hand through her curly hair. 

“I’d best get back to your brother, I have a feeling he’ll make my life hell if I don’t,” Rowena mutters, waving over her shoulder as she heads back to where Luke and his team are standing around.

“Alright,” Dean says, rubbing his hands together as he turns to Castiel with a smile. “This is a great area, really up-and-coming for starter and family homes. Have you given any thought to what kind of home you want to flip?”

Castiel smiles. “Actually, yes. I know it’s more of a risk, both money-wise and design-wise, but I feel like we could do a lot more with a family home. Starter homes rarely have everything someone’s looking for but I want to make it my mission to make people’s homes their own personal oasis. That’s what a home  _ should _ be, or at least what I think it should be.”

Dean hums. “Preaching to the choir, buddy. It is a big risk, sure, but it’ll give you more area to work with and more wiggle-room with the design. Did you find any properties that tickled your fancy?”

Castiel nods, digging his tablet out of his bag. “A ton, actually. I did some exploring when we got the list of areas and Delta Springs was the area I found the most variety, especially with family homes.” He scrolls through all the files on his tablet, filtering out the starter homes he’d picked and pulling up a few of the ones he really liked. He passes the tablet to Dean, who appears impressed as he flips through the pictures and designs on the tablet.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding. These are really good, Cas,” he says, glancing up and smiling softly. “You’re really good.”

“I would hope so,” he says with a laugh, cheeks undoubtedly red. “I  _ do _ get paid to do this.”

Dean watches him with a smile, head tilted to the side just a bit. “Yeah, you do, don’t you? Why’d you decide to stay behind the scenes, anyway?”

Castiel shrugs. “Luke suggested it, actually. He told me I was a gifted designer and I should focus on that because anything else would distract me.” He frowns. “I’m beginning to see that it was a manipulation to keep me from being in direct competition with him in the company.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard he’s good at twisting people’s thoughts until they agree with him,” Dean mutters, shaking his head as he continues looking through the designs on Castiel’s tablet. He pauses on one, lips pursed as he examines it closely. “This one looks promising, the Beechwood Drive house? Two-story, four-bedroom on an acre?”

Castiel grins. “That was my favorite, as well. We’d be able to actually do some landscaping for that one, and the house is a good size for an average family.”

Dean nods, looking up at Cas with a soft smile. There’s something unreadable in his eyes but it’s gone before Castiel has a chance to examine it any more. “Yeah. It should be a good one. Budget isn’t too crazy, either, which’ll make the show happy.”

“You think we should go with that one, then?”

He hums, looking at the last two quickly before returning the tablet. “We should look at all of them, but I’ll pay extra attention to that house. Make sure we won’t have any hidden costs if we move walls around or somethin’.”

Charlie approaches them then, so Castiel tucks his tablet back into his bag and lifts his chin up as she attaches microphones to both of them. It feels a little unnatural to have a wire running underneath his shirt, but hey, he’s in showbusiness now, apparently. Still, Charlie tries to chat with them while they get ready, undoubtedly to calm their nerves, and Castiel appreciates it. He’s never done something like this before, especially on such a huge platform. Hell, he doesn’t even have a Twitter.

“Ready to do this, man?” Dean asks, clapping him on the shoulder and smiling encouragingly. “Charlie and a few of the crew are gonna come look at some of the houses, since you’ve already got some prepared.”

Castiel swallows nervously, wincing as he realizes the microphone probably picked that up. “Uh, right now?”

Dean chuckles and squeezes his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, man. It’s just a quick walk-through of the houses. I’ll make sure there are no real problems and you can get an idea of the space, better than pictures can give you anyway. We don’t actually have to make an offer today or anything.”

He lets out a breath slowly, nodding. “Alright, well, I’ve got two family homes and three starter homes that could be good, depending on… well, a lot of things.”

Charlie grins. “Perfect, we’ll have plenty of time for all of those. Which is the closest one?”

Castiel brings up his list and shows Charlie, who looks at it for a moment and then gives them a thumbs-up as she walks away, phone in hand. He turns to Dean for an explanation, frowning as Dean laughs. 

“She’s got a photographic memory. Gets annoying at times, but in this job, it’s actually a huge asset. She’s calling the agents to get the keys to the houses you want to check out, she’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Sure enough, Charlie returns less than ten minutes later, a clipboard in hand and a pleased grin on her face. “Ready to go, boys?”

Dean salutes her with two fingers, tucking his hands into his pockets as he follows her to one of the nearby SUVs. Castiel hurries behind them, sliding into the back seat with Dean.

“Hey, man,” the driver says, undoubtedly to Dean since Dean’s face lights up at the sight of him. 

“Victor! I didn’t know you were working today. Good to see you, man. Rowena and Charlie are treating you well, I assume?” Dean asks, shooting Charlie a jokingly stern look, which makes Charlie roll her eyes.

“They are,” Victor confirms, meeting Castiel’s eyes in the rearview mirror and smiling. “I’m Victor, I’ll be your driver for the day. Castiel, right?”

Castiel nods shyly, clasping his hands together in his lap. “It’s nice to meet you. You work for the show?”

“Sure do. Mostly behind the camera, though I’ve been known to lend a hand if someone’s crew is short.”

“Victor’s an electrician, he oversees a lot of the electrical work for the houses flipped on the show. It’s mostly to make sure the show isn’t liable for anything that happens after it’s sold.”

Victor smirks, pulling them onto the road and heading in the direction of the nearest house. “You make it sound so glamorous, Dean.”

Dean rolls his eyes, though there’s a small smile curving his lips. “More glamorous than my job, anyway.”

Charlie turns to glare at Dean and opens her mouth to say something, but they’re already pulling up to the first house and Dean’s out of the car the moment Victor puts it in park. Clearly he’s not interested in being scolded by Charlie. Castiel smiles to himself and steps out of the car, frowning as he’s met with their first house. It’s one of the starter homes, two bedrooms with one and a half bathrooms, but it’s far more dilapidated than it had looked in the pictures online. The paint on the front of the house is peeling, the entire driveway would need to be torn up and redone, and at least three of the five windows Castiel can currently see are smashed in, covered by thick wooden boards. 

“Break-in,” Dean explains, gesturing to the windows. “Houses that stay on the market a while tend to get broken into, especially if they’re not being shown often. Doubt there was much left to steal, but some people are just assholes.”

“Dean,” Charlie chastises, shaking her head. “Language. Last time you were on the show, we had to cover basically every other word.”

Dean snorts. “I wouldn’t hold your breath, Charles, I don’t even realize I’m doing it half the time.”

She rolls her eyes but doesn’t press him on it, instead turning to look at Castiel. “The key should be here in a couple of minutes, the real estate office was having it couriered over. Kevin’s gonna follow you around with a camera, which I realize will be annoying, but try to forget that it’s there. Our audience likes a peek behind the curtain, not a soap opera, so we won’t be expecting you to do anything other than flip a house for us.”

Castiel sags with relief. “Good, I’m not the best actor.”

Charlie laughs. “Go ahead and have a look at the property while we wait, if you’d like. Kevin?”

A young kid approaches with a heavy-looking camera, smiling shyly at both of them. “Hey. Nice to meet you both.”

Dean smiles at him and even Kevin seems to fall under the spell of Dean’s beauty, relaxing under his gaze. Castiel can sympathize. He should be curled up in a ball absolutely panicking about flipping an entire house by himself but, somehow, he’s not. He’s still nervous, of course, but he’s functional. 

“You too, kid. Ready to do this, Cas?”

Castiel nods, returning Dean’s smile and following him onto the property. Kevin lingers close by, undoubtedly filming their every move. It makes Castiel uncomfortable, but that quickly fades as Dean draws him into the more technical aspects of examining the house. 

They circle the little cottage and it’s in even worse shape in the back. The exterior wood is clearly rotted, half of the back porch has collapsed on itself and all of the grass and shrubbery that was lining the back yard in the pictures online has died and basically turned to ash with how long it’s been sitting there entirely uncared for. Even Dean winces as he looks at the house, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I think we may cross this one off entirely, yeah? Too much work and too big a budget for something like this.”

Castiel hums. “Perhaps. It  _ would _ be more impressive if we could pull it off, though.”

Dean clicks his tongue. “Maybe, yeah, but something like this is bound to have hidden costs that we can’t account for, we’d end up having to sacrifice the design.”

He frowns. That thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, but Dean’s right. There could absolutely be things wrong with the interior of the house, things that could add up rather quickly if they’re not careful. “How much do you think it would be to fix up the outside?”

Dean scratches at the back of his head, slipping on a thick work glove and poking at one section of the wood. It crumbles under his touch and the raised eyebrow he gives to Castiel does not look encouraging. “You want me to give you a number? It kinda depends on how deep we have to go to fix the outside but probably upwards of ten thousand.”

Castiel gapes. That’s much more than he was expecting, though he supposes it  _ would _ be a lot of work if they end up needing to redo the entire exterior of the house up to code. “Good lord, that’s a lot. Does that include the yard?”

Dean scrunches his nose up for a moment and looks around. “Yeah, but just minor stuff like laying down grass and cleaning up. Maybe some flowers or a bush or two, nothing major.”

They check out the inside of the house once the key is dropped off, though it’s just as bad if not worse than the outside. He and Dean both agree to check it off the list completely. It’s too much to handle for the limited timespan they have to film, they’d never get it done on time and within budget.

The next house is one of the family homes and much nicer, if a little dated. The wallpaper is peeling, but Dean’s inspection doesn’t turn up anything major like water damage or massive electrical work that needs to be redone. It’s not Castiel’s favorite—the layout is a little strange, with the garage right next to the bedroom and the kitchen on the second floor—but it’s definitely a contender. 

The two houses they check out after that are alright. No major problems, but they’re both starter homes and Castiel doesn’t really want to waste his time on a home someone’s only going to live in for a few years before moving on. Dean seems to agree, so they drop those two houses to the bottom of the list and head for the last one they want to see.

“Whoa,” Dean says under his breath as they step out of the car, grinning over at Castiel. “You seein’ what I’m seein’, Cas?”

Castiel chuckles. “Potential?”

“Yeah, dude!” Dean hovers behind Charlie as she unlocks the house and lets them inside.

Castiel makes an appreciative noise, tilting his head to the side thoughtfully. The house is already pretty open-plan, which will make their lives a lot easier since they won’t have to shuffle too many walls around. The carpeting is old and disgusting but Dean pulls a corner back to reveal worn hardwood floors. Dean whistles appreciatively, brushing his fingers over the polished wood.

“These are gorgeous,” Dean says with a grin. “Spruce ‘em up a little and they’ll be really pretty dark wood floors.”

Castiel raises an eyebrow and Dean shrugs in response.

“Done a lot of houses. Dark wood flooring is coming back into style. Might want to think about carpeting the bedrooms and anything that could be used as a playroom if it’s a family home. Safer for the kids.” Dean almost looks like he’s talking to himself as he jots a few notes onto his notepad and tucks his pencil behind his ear.

“You’ve thought about this a lot,” Cas comments, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. Dean glances at him and his cheeks instantly grow red, his free hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.

“Sorry, encroaching on your territory a bit, aren’t I? I’ll defer to whatever your design is, I promise.”

Castiel smiles, waving off his pledge. “You don’t need to do that, Dean. Actually, I’d appreciate your input. I rarely see the fruits of my designs. To be honest, I’m usually given the theme they want for the house and I design around that. An insider perspective would be most welcome.”

Dean raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms over his chest. The motion pulls his sleeves tight along his biceps and it makes Cas’s mouth water—no, hang on, he can’t be crushing on his co-worker! He needs this to go perfectly and messing everything up with an unwelcome crush on his contractor is  _ not _ in the plan.

They check out the rest of the house, though there’s not much else to see. Three bedrooms and a good size master suite, more than enough for them to make a comfortable area out of it, at least according to Dean’s assessments. The back yard is big and in good shape, though it could definitely use some landscaping. There’s a two-car garage attached to the house which is a huge selling point, as well as room for a laundry room on the same floor as the bedrooms. 

“First choice?” Dean asks as Charlie locks up, raising his eyebrows at Castiel. Castiel smiles and nods, looking back at the house.

“I think so, yes. We could do a lot with this house.”

Dean hums. “For sure. Do you need help writing up the proposal?”

Castiel blinks. Proposal? He hadn’t been told he needed to write a proposal and it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in his contract. Dean seems to recognize the panic on his face, his hand coming up to rest on Castiel’s shoulder. 

“Relax, man. It won’t be due for a while and you’re way ahead of the game anyways. Luke’s not even scheduled to look at houses until next week. You’ll have to submit a design proposal and draft budget for approval by production, since they’ll be the ones allocating all of the money.”

He frowns. He’s got plenty of design ideas and a rough idea of how much they’ll cost, based on research he’s done while designing for Angelic Houses, but he doesn’t even have a slight clue what the construction work on the house will cost. “Could you help with that? I’m not exactly sure how much it would cost to fix the place up, I don’t think I’d be able to properly budget that on my own.”

Dean grins and squeezes his shoulder. “Of course, man. You wanna meet up for drinks tomorrow and work on it?”

Castiel winces. “I have a project I need to finish by Friday.” Dean’s face falls, though he quickly schools it into a neutral expression. “But maybe this weekend? Saturday, if you’re not too busy?” Castiel continues, smiling softly as Dean instantly perks up. Odd that he’s that disappointed about not being able to work with Castiel tomorrow. Dean can’t really be interested in him, can he?

“Sure, man. Sounds great. I’ll text you later and we can hash out a time, cool?”

Castiel’s minimally thrown off by the slang but he smiles and nods, starting to reach for his phone until he realizes that Dean already has his number. “Yes, that’s perfect. I’m looking forward to it.”

Dean flashes him a shy smile as they both slide into the backseat of the car. Charlie seems to shoot Dean a look but he staunchly ignores her, instead focusing his attention out the window.


	3. Chapter 3

He’s nervous. Ridiculously so, in fact, especially since this is really only a business meeting. As it is, he’s triple-checked all of his estimates and his math so he doesn’t look like an idiot when they go over the numbers. He’s checked his outfit almost as many times. He’s in simple jeans and a button-down that he’s been told brings out his eyes. Not that he thinks this is a date. It definitely isn’t. But maybe, once this is done… he wouldn’t exactly be opposed to a date with the sexy contractor.

Right. Meeting. He needs to get his head in the game. It won’t pay to be distracted when he’s trying to impress Dean. Papers and rough blueprints in hand, he grabs his keys and heads out the door.

The bar isn’t far from his house and it’s a warm spring night, so he decides to just walk. He tucks his papers into his bag carefully, mostly to ensure they don’t get crinkled, before he sets off on his way. There’s a light breeze that makes his walk even more pleasant and, by the time he gets to the bar, he’s far more relaxed than he’d been when he’d left his house.

He finds Dean in the corner booth, a half-full glass of beer sitting in front of him. His face lights up the minute he spots Castiel and waves him over. He hesitates, almost like he wants to stand up and greet Castiel properly before he decides against it. It’s oddly adorable, at least in Castiel’s opinion.

“Hey, man, glad you found the place okay.” Dean smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners before he turns his attention to the bar and raises a hand at the bartender. She finishes wiping down the bar before she slings the towel over her shoulder and approaches the table. 

“Everythin’ alright over here, boys?”

Dean chuckles. “All good, Ellen. Cas just got here.”

Ellen gives Dean a knowing look, which, in turn, makes him roll his eyes. She chuckles and turns to Castiel. “What can I get for ya, hun?”

Castiel smiles softly. “Just a beer is fine, thank you. I’m not picky.”

Ellen heads back to the bar, returning a moment later with a glass of beer. “Let me know if I can get you boys anything else, you know where to find me.”

Dean grins at her. “Thanks Ellen, ‘preciate it.”

Castiel waits until she’s back at the bar before he raises a casual eyebrow at Dean. “You two seem friendly.”

Dean chuckles and takes a sip of his beer. “Ellen’s like my second mom, I basically grew up in this place. It’s how I got into contracting, actually. Used to fix this place up all the time, anything that broke. Got pretty good at it, so Ellen and her husband suggested I make a business out of it.” He shrugs, trying to look casual but the stiffness of his shoulders gives away his nervousness. “It’s worked out pretty well so far, so I can’t complain.” He claps his hands together, almost like he’s trying to shake off the nerves, and nods toward the folder Castiel had placed on the table not long ago. “Wanna get started?”

“Sure,” Cas answers, taking a sip of his beer before he begins to dig out all the documents he’d compiled, spreading them out along the worn wooden table. “I put together a couple of blueprints just so we have some basic ideas of what we could do with the space.” 

He slides the stack of blueprints across the table and Dean flips through them, sipping his beer as he examines them. He does point out a few errors and things they’d need to double-check after they purchase the house, which puts a little bit of a dent in Castiel’s pride, but, overall, Dean looks impressed. 

“These are really good, man. I’m surprised you’ve never actually done this before.”

Castiel smiles shyly, ducking his head as he feels his cheeks heating up. “I’ve done most of it before, just not the whole… rebuilding the house from the framework thing. I’m not quite sure how much help I’ll be. I know Rowena likes the flippers to be involved, not just rely on their contractors.”

Dean waves him off. “We’ll get you ready to rebuild a house in no time, dude, don’t worry about it. Did you write the budget proposal yet?”

He grimaces. This is the part he’s not exactly eager to show Dean because, realistically, he has no clue how much the renovation part of the process will cost. He passes the spreadsheet to Dean, each room and design idea meticulously labeled and color-coded, with the section for renovations left entirely blank. Dean laughs, shaking his head and taking a sip of his beer. Castiel starts to apologize, “Sorry, I know it’s not great, I just—”

“No, no,” Dean cuts him off, grinning. “It’s not that, I figured you wouldn’t know any of the renovations costs, it’s why I offered to meet with you to go over them. This is just… very organized. Everything laid out and planned through like this. It’s impressive.”

Castiel smirks. “You’ve said that word a lot tonight.”

Dean seems to hesitate for a moment before he smirks back, a twinkle of something Castiel can’t quite identify in his eye. “You’re an impressive guy.”

Is Dean… flirting? With him? Should he flirt back? Perhaps a little light teasing while they film wouldn’t be awful, it would undoubtedly make them more likable on camera and it may lead to an actual date once they finish filming. “Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe it,” he finally replies with a smirk, watching Dean’s pupils dilate as his tongue pokes out to lick his bottom lip.

“Is that so?”

Castiel hums, leaning back against the bench and crossing his arms over his chest. “Guess you’ll have to find out.”

Dean’s eyes flash with something dark that makes Castiel’s heart soar. It’s been a long time since someone’s looked at him like that, much less someone as attractive as Dean. “That an invitation, Cas?” Dean purrs, placing his arms on the table in front of himself and leaning closer. The low, sultry tone of his voice makes Castiel full-body shiver and bite his lip.

“Do you normally sleep with your co-workers?”

Dean snorts. “None of my co-workers have been as attractive as you, but no, I’ve never slept with a co-worker.” Dean smiles, raising his hands in a placating gesture before crossing his arms over his chest. “Message received, though, I’ll keep it in check.” 

Castiel raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t say you needed to keep it in check. I enjoy the flirting, but I think anything else might jeopardize our working relationship, don’t you?”

“Suppose so,” Dean says, smiling over the rim of his beer. “After the show, though?”

“Well,” Castiel smiles, shrugging. “I suppose we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it, won’t we?”

Dean grins. “Guess so.”

* * *

The rest of the process for that week is surprisingly easy. Their budget is accepted without issue and Rowena even compliments them on how thorough their plans had been, which makes Castiel grin stupidly wide once he’s alone. 

They’re notified that the house has been purchased under the price they’d planned on, so he and Dean agree to add the extra money to their budget, possibly for things they can add that will increase the value of the house. They’ve got the entire weekend to catch their breath and nail down the design plans for the house before they begin filming and rehab on Monday, so he and Dean meet up at the Roadhouse again on Saturday to iron out the final details.

“This wall can’t go unless we want a huge fee, it’s a load-bearing wall. We’d have to build a whole support into the ceiling so the upper floor of the house doesn’t collapse, could be upwards of ten thousand if we have to lay all the groundwork for it.”

Castiel frowns. The wall between the kitchen and living rooms is the only wall that obscures the open-plan feel of the house and Castiel was hoping to be rid of it. “We could use the money we saved buying the house, it was almost fifteen thousand. It wouldn’t leave much to change the design but I really think getting rid of that wall could make or break that house.”

Dean leans back in his chair and worries his lip between his teeth for a moment. “Yeah, alright. I agree the wall needs to go. Let me go take a look tomorrow morning and see if there’s anything we can do to get rid of it without having to build in a whole support.”

“You don’t have to do that, Dean, we can do it Monday morning.”

Dean waves him off, finishing off his beer and dropping some cash on the table. “I don’t mind, man, I promise. This is kinda my life, anyways. I’ve got somewhere I need to be, but I’ll call you in the morning and let you know, alright?”

Castiel smiles softly and nods. “As long as it’s not an imposition. Thank you, Dean. Have a good night.”


	4. Chapter 4

Meeting Dean’s crew is a little surreal. They’re not at all what Castiel had expected. Some of them are young, maybe mid-twenties. Krissy is there to redo the bits of electrical work that need to be fixed or replaced entirely. She looks like she walked right out of a high school class to be here, but she’s nice enough and seems to know what she’s doing. Garth, a tall man who looks about 26, is so much like an overeager puppy that it scares Castiel just a little bit. He’s fidgeting the entire time Kevin and Charlie are trying to attach a microphone to his shirt, though he seems to just be excited that he’s going to be on TV. Aaron and Benny are closer to his and Dean’s age and they seem nice enough. Neither of them seems eager to be on camera, but Castiel doesn’t exactly blame them, he’s in the same boat. If this wasn’t guaranteeing him the opportunity to flip houses on his own, should it go well, he wouldn’t even be here.

“Alright, I know it’s a little weird that we’re gonna be on TV, but don’t let it get in the way of your job. We’re just flipping a house, forget that Charlie and her crew are here and let’s just do what we do best, alright?”

They launch into a deep discussion of how they want to begin. Dean, Benny, and Aaron are tasked with knocking down the only wall that needs to be removed, while Castiel, Garth, and Krissy are tasked with tearing the kitchen cabinets off the walls. All the appliances were removed by the previous owners, including the dishwasher and mounted microwave for some reason, but they probably would have ended up replacing them anyway so Castiel’s not overly concerned about it. It definitely makes the destruction of most of the kitchen far easier when they don’t have to work around those.

Dean and his crew laugh and joke for most of the day, but they still manage to get the entire kitchen gutted, the wall knocked down, and all the carpeting on the first floor ripped up. Everyone but Dean leaves around four, so Castiel sticks around to help him finish tearing the carpeting off the stairs, revealing the beautiful hardwood beneath. 

“This everything you dreamed it’d be?” Dean asks with a wry smile. He’s ridiculously attractive at the moment and it’s a downright miracle that Castiel manages to actually comprehend what Dean is asking him. The sweat dripping down his forehead, the shirt clinging to his torso, the messy hair, the safety glasses perched on his nose… It wasn’t a kink Castiel was aware he had, but you learn something new every day, he supposes. 

“I think so. I’ve enjoyed it so far, though we haven’t done much besides tear things up that we need to remove. I did enjoy looking at houses and going through the budget and everything before this, I’ve always had a brain for numbers.” He smiles awkwardly, deciding to try his hand at some flirting. “I suppose the excellent company helped, as well,” he says, trying and spectacularly failing to wink like a normal human being. Dean gives him a funny look before he smiles and ducks his head, shaking it a couple of times.

“You’re a weird dude, Cas.”

Castiel frowns and tilts his head to the side. “Is that a bad thing?”

“Nah,” Dean says with a grin, patting Cas on the shoulder. It leaves a little bit of dust on Castiel’s black henley, but he can’t find it in himself to care. “Definitely a good thing.”

When they finally wrap things up and lock the house behind them, Castiel walks back to his home with a bounce in his step and a stupidly huge grin on his face.

* * *

The process is everything Castiel dreamed it would be. He fits in seamlessly with Dean’s crew, and they seem to accept his presence without issue, which is a huge relief. He’d been worried they would shun him due to his lack of experience, but all of them are okay if not eager to explain everything to him. 

It takes them a while to get the house in good shape—Krissy had to redo more of the electrical work than they’d anticipated, but it still fits within their budget and time constraints, so Castiel isn’t overly worried.

At least, he  _ wasn’t  _ worried until he and Dean walk in one morning to find the entire first floor of the house covered in a thin layer of water. He and Dean always arrive the earliest to go over everything that needs to be done that day, so they’re the first to find the impromptu swimming pool in the middle of their renovation. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Dean mutters, dropping his things outside the house before stepping cautiously through the water to the stairs. 

Castiel doesn’t hesitate to follow him and they quickly find the leak within the master bathroom, which has undoubtedly ruined the tile they’d spent all day yesterday painstakingly laying. Dean scrambles to shut the water off, and then they dig into what the problem was. All the plumbing was relatively new, at least to Castiel’s knowledge, it shouldn’t have rusted so soon.

Dean scoffs as he finally reaches the pipe. “This is a clean cut. It didn’t just burst, someone broke in here and cut it in half.”

Castiel blinks at him in confusion. Deliberate sabotage? Would Luke really stoop so low?

Yes. Yes, he would.

Sighing, Castiel crosses his arms over his chest. “I’ll check, but I’m sure the security cameras won’t have caught anything. We won’t have a way to prove that it was Luke.”

Dean shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter, at this point. There’s nothing they could do to him other than warn him not to do it again. They’ve put too much time and money into this episode, they’re not going to cancel it because Luke is cheating. Best we can do is clean this up, hope the entire bottom floor of the house hasn’t been ruined, and get back to work.”

Castiel sighs and nods, scraping a hand through his hair. “Alright, let’s clean this up, then,” he mutters, rolling the sleeves of his shirt up and finding some towels.

Somehow, by some miracle, the tiles in the bathroom are fine. Some of the grout needs to be touched up once the floor is fully dry but at least they won’t have to rip the tiles up and start over. The downstairs floors, though, they’re utterly ruined. By the time they get the water cleaned up with the help of the rest of the crew, they realize the gorgeous wooden floors are warped beyond recognition and aren’t in any shape to remain in the house. 

“Alright, don’t panic,” Dean says, raising an eyebrow at Cas. “We can get some vinyl flooring that looks just like hardwood and it shouldn’t ding the list price too much. Some people actually prefer it, they don’t have to do the same upkeep as genuine hardwoods and vinyl is a lot easier to clean. We’ll make due.”

Castiel rubs his face with his hands. His stubble scratches against his palms, but it somehow does calm him down. If Dean’s not concerned, then there’s no reason to be concerned. Hell, he’s got more experience in this than Castiel does. “Alright. I’ll make a note of that on the design plans, we can keep it in mind when we shop.”

“Alright, let’s get to work, we need to get these floors out of here and make sure the damage doesn’t go too deep, let’s see what we’re working with. Krissy, the electrical in the bathroom is gonna need fixing, make that your priority today, everything else can be pushed.”

Everyone disperses rather quickly once Dean finishes talking, but Castiel lingers. He’s not really sure what he’s supposed to be doing, not to mention the guilt rolling around in his stomach. Dean could be working a normal job right now, but Castiel had to suck him and his team into the family battle between himself and Luke.

“Yo, Cas, get outta your head, man. Come help me.”

Castiel blinks at Dean, momentarily confused, before he realizes Dean is asking him to assist in ripping up the floors. He takes the pair of work gloves Dean offers him and busies himself tearing up the water-soaked wood, piling it on the driveway with the rest of the ruined floors the others are tearing up.

It takes the better part of the day, but they finally manage to get rid of all the flooring and replace the parts of the subfloor that need to be replaced. Dean seems pleased that they’ve only lost a day of work, so Castiel tries not to let his anger at his brother take hold. If Dean can shrug it off that easily, he should be able to as well. He’s the one that’s technically in charge of this flip, after all.

* * *

He and Dean meet up a week later on a Saturday. The house is progressing nicely, actually. They’re nearly finished fixing up everything that needs to be repaired before they start laying down the design elements. They’re picking those out today, including the new floors that have to be put in. It’s a shop Castiel’s never stepped foot in, but he knows Angelic Houses has a contract with them, so he’s not unfamiliar with their products. Dean, however, seems to know the store like the back of his hand. He leads Castiel right to the back, where the vinyl flooring samples are kept, and they both zero in on one that’s almost a perfect copy, at least where color is concerned, of the floors they’d originally had. It’s relatively cheap compared to some of the other samples, which makes Castiel feel infinitely better. He’d been worried that the sabotage of the floors would use up the money they’d saved when purchasing the house, but it barely puts a dent in it, which means they can still go all-out on the backyard to make the house even more appealing.

In addition to floors, they decide on tile for the shower, paint and carpeting for the bedrooms, and the design of the kitchen. They decide on white cabinets since it’s a relatively small kitchen and Dean points out that clean-looking white cabinets will make the kitchen look bigger. A dark granite countertop is added to the bunch as both a contrast to the white cabinets and to match the dark gray fridge, microwave, dishwasher, and oven they’d already purchased for the house. Cas can actually visualize the finished product for once and it’s  _ gorgeous _ . He’s sort of disappointed they’ll have to sell it at the end of this whole experience, it’s a house he’d love to live in. 

“Cas? You in there, buddy?”

He blinks at Dean, smiling sheepishly when he realizes Dean’s been talking to him while he was completely zoning out. “Yes, I apologize. What were you saying?”

“Did you wanna go grab dinner and a drink? It’s getting late and we’re just about done here, I just need to give them the square footage for the flooring.”

Castiel frowns. Dinner with Dean? Alone? Without any work to complete? It’s dangerous, but he can’t stop his mouth from saying yes before his brain has thought it through. Dean seems to light up from the inside out when Castiel agrees, though, so perhaps it’ll be worth suffering through this dinner and his growing feelings for the contractor if it makes Dean smile like that. 

They head to a sit-down restaurant in town, which is already shocking. Castiel had expected them to eat at the Roadhouse, like the last few times they’d met up. He didn’t expect… well, an actual restaurant. 

“This is… nice,” Castiel ventures, raising an eyebrow at Dean. Dean glances at him and huffs his amusement, shaking his head.

“It’s not a date, man, don’t look at me like that. I was just in the mood for Italian and Ellen doesn’t do that.”

Castiel smiles sheepishly, following the hostess to their table. “I eat here a lot. Usually takeout, but their food is great.”

Dean grins as he settles in at the table. “Well good, then we don’t have to have the awkward silence when we read the menu, then.”

Castiel rolls his eyes but he can’t help the smile that appears on his lips. “I suppose not. Did you have something in mind that you wanted to discuss?”

Dean clears his throat, his teasing demeanor suddenly disappearing like it was a mask he’d just discarded. “Uh, actually, yeah. Something kinda serious, it’s another reason why I brought us here instead of the Roadhouse. I actually wanted to talk to you about going into business together.” He looks up at Castiel, as though expecting an answer, his brows knitting together when he doesn’t get one. “Um, I’ve been thinking about shifting into flipping houses full-time, but I don’t have the design mind for it. I can fix them up and make the bones good and make the floors and walls look good, sure, but I’m hopeless when it comes to picking out furniture and decorations and… basically everything. I’ve been looking for someone to cover the design side of things for a while, but I never found anybody that I clicked with. At least, not until you.”

“You…” Castiel starts, pausing as he tries to find the right words. Dean wants to go into business? With  _ Castiel _ , of all people? He wants to ask that, double-check that Dean’s asking the right person and not having a severe lapse in judgment, but all that comes out is, “really?”

Dean grins. “Yeah, man. Why not? I saw your designs, they were amazing, and we obviously work well together. My team likes you, you fit in like you’ve been there from the start.”

“That’s very kind of you, Dean, but I have almost no experience in any of this—”

Dean clicks his tongue and leans across the table. “Man, you know that isn’t true. C’mon, I saw all the designs you put together, they were immaculate. And that spreadsheet you did to calculate the budget? I wouldn’t have even thought of half of the shit you had on there.” He huffs, taking a sip from one of the glasses of water. “Look, I know you don’t have any experience and I know your reason for doing this show was to stick it to your brother so he’d let you do more at the company, but do you really want to work for him anyway? I’ve got enough experience flipping houses that I can walk you through it ‘til you get the hang of it.” He smirks. “I mean, even without any experience, you and I work like a well-oiled machine, you’ve gotta admit that.”

Castiel worries his lip between his teeth as he listens. Dean certainly has a point—he’s very proud of his designs, and their budget had obviously been more than adequate based on Rowena’s response to seeing it. He  _ definitely _ doesn’t want to work for Luke, he’s been trying to find a reason to leave the company for a while now, but he adores designing houses. Perhaps this is his out. “Where would we get the finances from? I have money saved up, but not nearly enough to outright purchase a house and resell it.”

Dean waves off his concerns. “We’ll get a loan for the first few until we start making some money off of them, it shouldn’t be a problem. Or I’m sure we could find investors if you don’t want to take out a loan.”

Castiel smiles softly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I like the idea, but I’m not sure I’m sold.”

“Alright, well, how can I sell you?” Dean leans back in his seat, mirroring Castiel’s own posture with a small smile on his face. 

“I seem to recall an agreement that once we were done working together, we’d go on a date. How will we do that if we’re going to continue working together?” Castiel asks, a wry smile on his lips that he hopes conveys his teasing.

Dean watches him for a moment, tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip as he chuckles. “I suppose we’ll have to inform Human Resources of our relationship once we get the business off the ground,” he teases back, foot nudging Castiel’s own beneath the table.

“Oh, Human Resources? And who might that be?”

Dean grins. “I guess it’d be me, huh. Fancy that. Unless you wanted that particular hat?”

Castiel shakes his head, a ridiculous grin lighting up his face. “You’re insufferable.”

“That a yes? Get dinner with me?”

Castiel smirks. “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”

Dean rolls his eyes. “I was giving you a business proposal, this is  _ not _ going to be our first date. Get dinner with me another time?”

Castiel laughs. “Sure, I suppose I could be okay with that. As long as we tell Human Resources.”

Dean grins. “Well, I’ll double-check, but I’m sure they’ll be okay with it,” he says with a wink, chuckling to himself.

The rest of their dinner is spent discussing the rough business plan Dean’s drawn up, and Castiel had to admit that he’s a bit enamored with the idea. It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy working for Angelic Houses, but he hasn’t had nearly as much opportunity there as he’ll get in business with Dean and his crew. 

By the time they leave, they’re both just a little bit tipsy and ecstatic, and maybe Castiel’s hands linger a bit too long on Dean’s arm, but neither of them comments on it. 

“C’mon, I’ll drop you off at home,” Dean murmurs, smiling softly at Castiel.

Castiel huffs. “I’ll call a Lyft, I don’t think either of us is in a position to drive.”

Dean holds his hands up, chuckling. “Fair enough.”

Castiel nods at the easy acceptance and opens the app on his phone. Their car arrives in only a couple of minutes and they pile into the back seat, half-leaning on each other the entire ride to Castiel’s place.

“Well. This is me,” Castiel mutters, reluctantly pushing himself away from Dean’s warmth. He pauses, biting his lip and glancing back at Dean. “Do you want to come in?”

Dean huffs a laugh. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cas. If I come in, I’m not sure I could stop myself from kissing you.”

Castiel raises an eyebrow. “And if I don’t want you to stop yourself?”

Dean searches his face and seems to find an answer he likes there because he’s climbing out of the car before Castiel even has a chance to move. Castiel scrambles out of the car after him, quickly thanking the driver as they head up the driveway to Castiel’s apartment. It’s the lower floor of a house, though he’s never actually met his upstairs neighbors. He’s not even sure he has any.

“You gonna unlock the door or am I going to kiss you on the porch like we’re in high school?” Dean asks. Without even looking at him, Castiel can hear the smirk in his tone, but the actual words sent a bolt of heat straight down to Castiel’s groin. He only takes a moment to decide—as much as he’d love to sit here and make out with Dean on his porch under the frankly breathtaking night sky, he’d  _ much _ rather have Dean all to himself in his bedroom—so he slips his key into the door and quickly lets them into his home.

He barely gets to close the door before Dean is on him, crowding him up against the wall and cupping Castiel’s face tenderly. “If I kiss you, are you going to regret it in the morning? I know you didn’t want to go past coworkers until we were done with the house,” he murmurs, thumb absentmindedly stroking along Castiel’s cheekbone.

“Dean, if you don’t kiss me in the next ten seconds—mmph!” Dean cuts him off with a swift kiss, one that leaves Castiel warm and breathless. It’s a perfect first kiss. Cas hadn’t actually believed those were real, but it’s perfect.  _ Dean _ is perfect.

“What’re you thinking about?” Dean murmurs, leaning down to kiss him again. This one is soft and sweet, with Dean’s fingers threading through Cas’s hair as Dean pulls him impossibly closer.

“That I was stupid for waiting this long to kiss you,” he answers between kisses, a warmth spreading through his chest when it makes Dean laugh. “And I’d be even stupider if I didn’t invite you to spend the night.” He takes a moment to lean back and let his eyes roam Dean’s body, a smirk on his lips. “Preferably with less clothes on than that.”

Dean grins, already reaching for the hem of his shirt. “Sounds like a fuckin’ great idea to me.”


	5. Chapter 5

“We’re nearly done with the house, at least. Only a few more days of shooting and then we’ll get the staging company in and put it on the market.” Dean bumps Cas’s shoulder with his own, though it doesn’t do all that much, their joined hands keep them close together as they walk up the steps to the renovation. 

“I think I’ll miss it, actually. Not so much the cameras, but the whole process. I had hoped to like it, but I never thought I’d enjoy it this much.”

Dean smirks. “You enjoyed yourself enough on Saturday.”

Castiel rolls his eyes and shoves Dean gently. “You’re obnoxious. Let’s try to keep it appropriate at work, hm? Unless you want the whole world watching our… whatever this is.”

“Relationship?” Dean supplies with a gentle smile. Castiel glances at him, his own smile lighting up his face. 

“Relationship,” he confirms with a grin.

The bubble of happiness they’d created over the weekend is shattered the minute they open the door. The house is in ruins. Spray paint covers their freshly-painted walls with all manner of crude drawings and slurs. Someone has obviously taken a sledgehammer to what remains of their kitchen—the cabinets are obliterated, with only the hinges hanging limply from the walls, and there are chunks of what used to be their granite countertops scattered throughout the room. 

“What the  _ fuck _ ?!” Castiel breathes as he threads his fingers through his hair. “This place is destroyed, we’ll never get it ready in time, oh my—”

“Okay, whoa, just breathe. Let me go check something before we full-on freak out, alright?”

Cas puts a hand over his mouth, nodding as he manages to suck in a sharp breath. He tries to blink away the frustrated tears he knows are prickling the corner of his eyes, but then Dean’s disappearing upstairs and he doesn’t have a reason to hide them.

He makes his way through the rest of the house to see the extent of the damage, but the farther he walks, the worse he feels. The entire house is in ruins and it’s all his fault.  _ He’s _ the one that begged Luke to let him take on a project of his own,  _ he’s _ the one that agreed to this whole thing in the first place, rather than just returning to his home office to continue his designs. 

“Cas, hey, hey, look at me,” Dean murmurs, gently turning Cas to face him. He promptly collapses against Dean’s chest, barely stopping himself from dissolving into full-body sobs. “Cas, it’s not your fault, man. Okay? Luke being a psycho is not your fault. Just because you wanted to branch out doesn’t give him the right to sabotage what you’re doing, especially not to win a reality show contest, alright?” He wraps his arms around Castiel tightly, which does actually help calm him down. Or maybe it’s just Dean, he can’t entirely tell. “Besides, this time he’s not getting away with it,” Dean murmurs as he cards a soothing hand through Cas’s hair.

“Of course he is, Dean, there’s no way he left the security cameras running.”

Dean grins and drops a kiss to the top of Cas’s head. “He didn’t, so I guess it’s a good thing I installed another camera separate from those ones, hm?” He points to the smoke detector in the area between the living room and kitchen. “I figured he might come back, so I hid a camera in there. I already checked the tapes and there’s a clear picture of him and his crew breaking in and tearing the place apart. I’m gonna forward all of the footage to Rowena, alright? Until she gets back to us, let’s just get as much as we can cleaned up. We have some extra paint, we can at least cover up the spray paint on the walls.”

With a shaky breath and a nod, Cas pulls himself together and they get to work. It takes most of the day to get everything cleaned up and repainted, even with the help of Dean’s crew, but it looks like all the damage was at least superficial. The bones of the house are still intact. They’ll have to reorder almost everything and reinstall it all, but at least they don’t have to rebuild the house from the ground up.

A knock on the door shortly before dinnertime yanks Castiel out of his thoughts. Rowena walks in with a tall, shaggy-haired man tailing behind her. Dean immediately beelines for the man, grinning as they hug each other tightly. Castiel shoots a questioning glance toward Rowena, who smiles and shrugs. 

“Brothers. You’d think they hadn’t seen each other in years even though we have dinner every Sunday. Samuel, dear, shall we explain why we’re here?”

Ah, he should’ve put two and two together. Sam does look a lot like the pictures of the scrawny kid that Dean keeps in his wallet, though Castiel has a feeling those pictures were taking in a different lifetime. This Sam is tall and filled out and has an air of confidence to him that Castiel envies. 

“Hey, I’m Sam, it’s nice to finally meet you, man. Dean won’t  _ shut up _ about you,” Sam says, reaching out to shake Castiel’s hand as he sends a sly grin toward his brother. Dean just rolls his eyes and gives him the finger. “Anyway, I work for the show, I’m the head contract lawyer. Rowena brought the footage to me and it’s a clear violation of his contract.”

“Aye, obviously. We’re not so stupid to forget phrasing that makes intentional tampering out of bounds,” Rowena pipes up with a roll of her eyes. “What he’s trying to say is we showed your lovely brother the footage and gave him an ultimatum: he pays for the replacements and labor hours that will go into fixing what he broke, or we air the footage of him and his goons wrecking the place in the middle of the night because he’s terrified that his wee brother could best him at something.” Rowena smirks and flips a lock of her shocking red hair over her shoulder. “He chose the former, of course. We’ll give you ample time to complete the repairs and get it staged and on the market before we finish filming. We’ve pushed back the air date of your episode as well, just in case we need to make any last-minute edits should Mr. Novak fail to uphold his side of the bargain.”

Castiel stumbles back a step and leans against what remains of the kitchen island. “You got him to agree to that? Just like that?”

Sam snorts. “Never underestimate my wife, she can be downright scary when you cross her.”

Rowena beams at that, patting Sam on the arm. “Why don’t you all pack up for the night and head home? There’s not much more than can be done tonight, all the stores are already closed.”

Dean nods and heads off into the house to inform the crew. Castiel, however, is rooted to the spot. There’s no way he can go home tonight. That ultimatum will only have enraged Luke more, he could very well come back and knock the entire house to the ground. He can’t leave.

“Cas? You wanna grab dinner?” Dean asks, resting a hand on Cas’s shoulder. Without even looking at him, Cas shakes his head.

“No. No, I need to stay here tonight. Luke’s going to be pissed, what’s going to stop him from leveling this whole place? Then we’ll be screwed, we can’t rebuild the entire house.”

Dean looks like he wants to argue but, after a moment, he just smiles softly and nods. “Alright, if you feel like you need to.” He steps closer and presses the lightest of kisses to Castiel’s lips, smiling reassuringly. “I’ll see you later?”

Castiel can barely stop himself from frowning, but he does, instead forcing a small smile. “Okay. Goodnight, Dean.”

* * *

Castiel’s barely been asleep for a couple of hours when a loud noise on the porch startles him awake. He quickly rolls over and grabs the piece of wood he’d decided on as a weapon, creeping toward the front door. It’s pitch black outside and they don’t have the front porch light hooked up yet, so Castiel can’t make out a thing. 

“Ow,  _ fuck _ .”

The voice startles Castiel, but he’d know it anywhere. “Dean? What the hell are you doing here?” Castiel hisses as he pulls the front door open and drags Dean into the house. Dean yelps and he can make out the sound of what sounds like a plastic bag filled with something crash to the floor. 

“Jeez, good to see you too, Cas. Hope you didn’t want those cookies all in one piece.”

Castiel huffs and flicks the light in the living room on. It’s nothing more than a lightbulb hanging from a string, but it does the job until they can install the actual fixture. “You nearly gave me a heart attack, Dean! What’re you doing here?”

Dean shrugs and grins. “Couldn’t let you stay here alone. I didn’t really expect you to be asleep just yet, sorry about that.” He straightens up and it’s only then that Castiel realizes he’s wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses. 

“You wear glasses?”

Dean blinks at him and reaches a hand up to touch the frames, almost like he’d forgotten he was wearing them. “Oh, uh, yeah. Usually contacts, they’re easier to work with and I wear ones that I can sleep in, but sometimes I wear my glasses to give my eyes a break.” He smirks. “Why, is that a deal breaker? Can’t date anyone who looks like a nerd?”

Castiel scoffs. “Dean, I hate to break it to you, but you  _ are _ a nerd. I saw all the nerdy paraphernalia in your home.”

Dean gapes at him. “That’s—Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are not nerdy! They’re classics!”

He rolls his eyes, a hint of a smile on the corners of his lips. “Whatever you say, Dean.”

Dean mutters something under his breath and then ducks to collect the bag and the stack of blankets he’d dropped. “Well, if you’re done berating me, I brought snacks and blankets, figured you could use them.”

He smiles softly and leans up on his toes to give Dean a brief kiss. “That’s very kind of you, Dean, but I could never ask you to stay here with me. I know I’m just being paranoid, anyway.”

Dean hums, stepping around Castiel to spread a blanket out in the middle of the living room. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re not asking, huh? You gonna come eat some of these cookies or am I eating them all myself?”

Castiel laughs and follows Dean because he’s clearly not going to talk the man out of it, and he could honestly use the company. The silence had been driving him just a little crazy. 

They camp out in the living room for a couple of hours, watching some silly videos on Dean’s phone as they munch on the cookies he’d brought with him. It’s surprisingly comfortable, though Dean’s always had a calming effect on him, so Castiel can’t exactly say that he’s surprised. Still, he tries to push his feelings for the contractor down, at least for the night. He’s already worried enough, he doesn’t need to worry about how his feelings are already just a little bit too strong when they’ve been on exactly one date.

“You get caught up in your head a lot,” Dean comments, tapping Cas’s thigh with his free hand. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?”

Castiel hums. “You, mostly. How much I already like you.”

Dean beams at that and shuffles to lay down next to Castiel, draping an arm over his middle as his head settles onto Castiel’s chest. “Oh yeah? What if I told you I like you a lot, too?”

“Well, I guess I’d have to do this,” Castiel murmurs, slipping a finger underneath Dean’s chin to tilt his head up. Dean’s lips part in anticipation, so Castiel smiles and leans forward to press the gentlest of kisses to his lips. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think that Dean had whined when he’d pulled away.

“What, just a kiss?” Dean asks with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows, so Cas laughs and drags a hand through Dean’s hair.

“Well, considering we’ve got nothing here, yeah, sadly.”

Dean snorts. “Alright, first of all, there’s a lot we can do without lube. Second of all, I did bring lube.”

Castiel laughs, a full-body laugh that sends Dean into a fit of laughter beside him. “I’m sorry, that’s just an odd combination. Lube and cookies,” Castiel says through giggles, biting his lip as he watches a blush spread across Dean’s freckled face. 

“Yeah, well, I figured you might need some entertainment and Youtube can only do so much.” He smirks, shrugging. “I have a lot of  _ entertainment _ that I can provide.”

“Oh? Do show me,” Castiel murmurs with a wry smile, shifting a bit as Dean slides down his body and presses a kiss just below his belly button.

“I’m not sure you could handle me at peak entertainment, but I guess I could let you have a peek at a thing or two.” Dean shoots him a cocky grin as he toys with the button of Castiel’s jeans, fingertips trailing over the already growing hardness just behind his zipper.

“Dean,” Cas breathes, threading his fingers through the contractor’s hair. “Don’t tease, today’s been stressful enough.”

Dean laughs. “Fine, fine. Bossy.” He trails a line of kisses along the top of Cas’s jeans as he pops the button and drags the zipper down. Castiel squirms at the soft touches, eyes locked on Dean’s mouth brushing against his skin. His attention quickly shifts when Dean’s knuckles brush along his clothed length, sending a shiver through his body that Dean seems to enjoy if his smirk is anything to go by. 

Dean must give up on the teasing, since he doesn’t waste a moment dragging Castiel’s pants and boxers down far enough to wrap a hand around his straining length. His palm is warm and soft and Castiel half thinks he might be able to come just like this, but then Dean’s hand is replaced with the warm silkiness of Dean’s mouth and Castiel is so entirely gone on Dean that it would terrify him if he wasn’t otherwise occupied. 

Castiel returns the favor, to Dean’s delight, and lazily tugs on his clothes once they’ve recovered their energy, frowning when Dean stops him. 

“Brought you sweats. Sleeping in jeans sucks,” he explains with a shrug as he pulls a pair of sweatpants from his backpack. Castiel takes them, a mix of grateful and excited. Sleeping in jeans would have been awful, and it’s the icing on the cake that he gets to wear  _ Dean’s _ sweatpants, so not only will he have Dean’s scent wrapped around him all night, he’ll have Dean himself lying right next to him. Castiel would swear that’s what the best wet dreams are made of.

Even as they settle in for the night, Dean’s chest pressed tight to Castiel’s back and an arm slung over Cas’s middle, Castiel can’t quite believe his luck.

* * *

It takes them the better part of a month to get their replacements in and install them in the house, but Rowena has assured them that the replacements have already been paid for and she won’t stop hounding Luke until he signs the crew’s paychecks. Charlie and Kevin stick around as the house is staged and appraised—it’s worth far more than he and Dean had anticipated, which is definitely a good thing—and then the whole process is over and Castiel is dropped right back into his old life like nothing has changed. Except,  _ everything _ has changed. It’s with that thought in mind that he types up his letter of resignation and drops it on Michael’s desk. Instead of the look of surprise Castiel had anticipated, Michael just smiles.

“Good for you, Castiel. Good luck.”

“You’re not surprised?”

Michael laughs. “No offense, kiddo, but no, I’m not shocked. Sure, you like designing houses, but how long have you been asking to branch out, now? You’re better off doing your own thing, you’ve obviously got the skills for it. So go crush it.” He smirks and leans closer, dropping his voice as he says, “Knock Luke out of the business. Prick deserves it.” 


	6. Chapter 6

They all meet up to watch the episode when it airs a month later—Benny, Victor, Kevin, Charlie, Garth, Aaron, Krissy, Sam, Rowena, and Castiel all crowd into Dean’s apartment. It’s not a small apartment but the amount of people has them all squishing into the living room with hardly any room to breathe. Castiel ends up tucked between Dean’s legs, leaning back against his chest with a bowl of popcorn to split, so he’s not really in any place to complain about his position, and Dean doesn’t seem to mind either.

The episode is much more dramatic than Castiel had expected, but he supposes that it  _ is _ reality TV so the drama probably attracts more people. To his surprise, Luke’s multiple sabotages of their house make it into the final cut, to the cheers of everyone in the room. Rowena has a smug smile on her face, though Castiel can’t help but feel bad. She’d burned that bridge with the entirety of Angelic Houses just to be on Castiel’s side, an entire company she can no longer work with.

“Rowena hated working with them anyway,” Dean whispers against his ear, placing a gentle kiss to the skin just below. “She’d been looking for a way to cut ties with them for a while, but the views were always too good. Exposing him for the piece of shit that he is will alienate the viewers and she can finally stop inviting him back on the show.”

Castiel smiles softly. They haven’t even been together for three months and Dean can already read him so well. It’s scary but, at the same time, he kind of loves it. It proves that Dean is paying attention to him and his quirks, an observation that will be endlessly adorable in Castiel’s eyes. 

“Well, I think a dramatic, successful episode like that calls for a celebration!” Charlie calls with a grin once the credits begin to roll, bouncing out of her seat and picking her way through the crowded living room to Dean’s kitchen. She collects the bottles of champagne from Dean’s fridge and lugs them to the living room, passing them around as she grabs glasses. Dean pops the cork on the first bottle and fills the glasses, passing them around the room until everyone’s got one. They toast to a job well done, an excellent episode, and Rowena, in particular, toasts to never having to work with Luke again.

The night winds down pretty quickly. It’s only a Thursday, almost everyone in the room has work the following morning, so they leave pretty quickly once the episode ends. Castiel’s spending the night at Dean’s, so he takes it upon himself to help his boyfriend clean up the living room and bring all the dishes to the kitchen. That’s when Rowena corners them with a mischievous grin on her face that makes Castiel nervous. 

“I hear you boys are going into business together,” she states, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorway. “Do you have any investors?”

Dean shrugs. “Not at the moment, no. We just filed the paperwork to register the business, we only learned it was accepted a couple of days ago. Why?”

Rowena hums. “Well a little birdie tells me that you two are quite popular with my audience, I’m absolutely positive they’d like to see you again. That is, if you’d like to come back on the show, of course. I would never pressure you to.”

Castiel raises his eyebrows with a mix of shock and disbelief. “You want us back on the show?”

“Dearie,” Rowena says, clicking her tongue disapprovingly. “We’ve only got the preliminary numbers so far, but your episode is on track to be the highest-rated episode of the season. Not only was it rife with drama, you two have so much bloody chemistry that I’m sure the viewers were being physically strangled by it.”

Dean scoffs. “We were professionals!”

Rowena smirks. “Sure. We won’t discuss what occurred when you spent the night at the house together, then. Anyway, would you consider returning? We’d cover all the costs, of course, and it would be great exposure for your company.” She leans closer and lowers her voice. “I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I’ve heard rumors that the network is looking for a new flipping show to take over the Tuesday night slot and I know several people have put your names forward, including myself. It’s nowhere near a done deal, but I do know they’re strongly considering it.”

Dean shrugs and glances at Castiel. “I’m fine with coming back on, but we’d have to make sure our crew is alright with it too.”

He has no idea how Dean’s being this calm right now. Rowena basically just said that they’re in the running to have their own TV show, which would not only help cover the expenses of the flips but get their name and designs out to a much larger audience, and Dean didn’t so much as bat an eye. Rowena seems to sense that she’s not going to get much of an answer from Castiel with the state he’s in, so she pats him on the shoulder and offers him a gentle smile.

“Sleep on it, both of you, and get back to me. I’ll throw my weight behind whatever you want, you’d be a breath of fresh air on the network.” She squeezes Cas’s shoulder before letting go to pull Dean into a hug. “I’ll see you both soon, take care.”

* * *

It’s taken almost two years, what with filming the first season of their very own show and getting their business off the ground, but he’s finally done it. 

He rearranges the pillows on the bed once more, sucking in a deep, nervous breath as he fishes his phone out of his pocket. He dials Benny’s number and brings his phone to his ear with a shaky hand. Benny answers after only a couple of rings and agrees to bring Dean over, to Castiel’s relief and anxiety. He’s put sweat and so many tears into this house that he’ll be absolutely devastated if Dean doesn’t like it. He’s almost sure Dean will love it as much as he does, but there’s a tiny, nagging part of his brain that tells him Dean will hate it  _ and _ him. Even after two years of dating him, that voice still hasn’t gone away. He’s not sure it ever will, but it gets easier and easier to ignore it with every  _ I love you _ that Dean says.

He hears Dean’s car pull up ten minutes later, rumbling to a stop in the freshly-paved driveway that Castiel had spent the previous weekend finishing. There’s a garage in the back of the house for all of Dean’s car needs, but he’ll show him that in due time. Right now, he needs to actually pull off this surprise without puking.

“Dude, why are you showing me a finished house, I thought we were looking at a place to flip.” 

Dean’s voice grows louder as he gets closer and Castiel can make out the sound of his clunky work boots hitting the wooden wrap-around porch that has more of Castiel’s tears in the foundation than he cares to admit. Nodding to himself, he smooths down his shirt and heads for the front door, reminding himself that this is Dean and he’s sure to love the place as much as Castiel himself does.

“Just shut up and get inside, Dean,” Benny replies and Castiel can picture the taller man rolling his eyes. He’s been around Benny enough to know the kind of relationship he and Dean have, so he would bet good money that Dean stuck his tongue out at Benny before pushing the front door open.

His mind only has one more moment to worry about the fact that Dean might actually hate the house and maybe he didn’t really have any intentions of spending the rest of his life with Castiel, despite their numerous conversations about it in the last couple of months, but then Dean’s stepping into the house with a wonderstruck expression on his face. 

“Cas? What is this, what’re you doing here?”

Castiel clears his throat and shoots a nervous glance over Dean’s shoulder at Benny. Benny just smiles encouragingly and steps back out onto the porch, closing the door behind him. Castiel clears his throat again, wringing his hands as he smiles nervously at Dean. “I, uh… finished it. Well, with some help, obviously. Benny’s been a huge help, and Krissy redid nearly all the electrical work, the house was pretty old—” 

“Get to the point, love,” Dean murmurs, stepping closer and brushing a thumb along Cas’s jaw. Castiel sucks in a deep breath and tries again.

“I flipped it. For us. I know we’ve only started talking about it recently, but you’re everything to me and I’m serious about this, if that’s what you want.” He frowns, the annoying part of his brain supplying that maybe Dean  _ doesn’t _ want this. “Or, I mean, we can also put it on the market, it was a foreclosure so I got it for super cheap. It’s in a good neighborhood too, good schools—”

“Good schools?” Dean cuts him off with a grin, bending just a bit to place a kiss on Castiel’s lips. “You sayin’ you wanna have kids with me, Cas?”

“O-only if you want to, I don’t—”

He’s interrupted with another kiss, though this one his much firmer and Dean’s thumbs are stroking along his cheeks. “Stop worrying, love. Like I said a few nights ago, when I picture my future, you’re in it. I want you now and I’ll want you then, house and 2.5 kids and all. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about.”

Castiel breathes a sigh of relief, wrapping his arms around Dean’s middle and practically collapsing against his chest. He can feel Dean smile against the top of his head and the quiet sound of his heartbeat calms Cas down pretty quickly, all things considered.

“I’m sorry you were so nervous to tell me,” Dean murmurs against his hair, fingers stroking down his back. “I should’ve been more clear about what I meant. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, whether that means marriage or kids or just living together with ten cats.”

Castiel smiles. “You’re allergic to cats.”

The answering hum he gets reverberates through Dean’s chest and right into Castiel’s own. “They make allergy pills. I’d take them if you wanted cats.”

Castiel grins and leans back enough to pull Dean into another kiss, humming happily as he threads his fingers through Dean’s hair. “I love you so much.”

Dean’s answering grin is brighter than any sunrise Castiel has seen in his life, and it gives him a deliciously warm and fuzzy feeling. “I know. Now, c’mon, show me the rest of our house.” 


End file.
